Start with quick cuts of stock footage playing on televisions of rioting and people stepping down from political stature and murders. Footage of fires and dilapidated buildings while guitar plays. Flashes of kids being sent to school, cars driving past, a teacher telling them to come in. As the school bell rings we see heavy locks being drawn upon doors and security surrounding the school.
We cut to a teacher setting up a camera and checking out the window. She takes the register twice quietly before asking for names. We see some of the kids with rags and holes in their clothes picking at them and coughing. Many of them cough at which point the teacher slams the window shut and starts writing on the board.
The next scene we see some of the parents who dropped their kids off saying goodbye to their wives and husbands and all getting in one car that has blacked out windows and takes them to their work together to be safe.
We cut to the bell ringing again and the silhouette of two kids walking in a playing field with the shadows of security in the background. The two kids stare at high security fences and start talking about what they had for lunch, they stop staring and start playing football, one of them kicks it over the fence and they both stare again. They start talking about who should get it. A security guard comes over and has ago at them about why the fences are there. They both walk back across the playground to class.
As they wait for their parents the two discuss having dinner round each other’s houses. We see them entering a house and taking their shoes off. The mum locks multiple doors and windows before turning on the lights and smiling. She goes into the basement and looks at a wall of packages and boxes, she tears one open and brings out some microwave dinners for the boys. The two are sat in the kitchen watching television, the news comes on and we see rioting and talks of disperse of politics. The mum turns it off. The two eat their dinner and laugh about things. The mum puts in a dessert for them to eat and as it reaches ten seconds left the electricity shuts off. She sighs and laughs. She asks her son to get the light. He passes her one and gets on himself. They go into the garage and she tries to flip the electricity back on to no avail.
She tells them to wait inside. As she goes to open her door someone knocks on it. It’s the father of the other boy telling her that it’s nothing to do with individual houses and that the entire street has been shut down from the outhouse generator on the outskirts of the town. A few members of the street gather together with flashlights and go towards to outhouse in the field.
They see shadows moving around and three running away. The father run after one who falls down. One grabs his leg and pulls him down as the others break into the generator house and try and start it up again. The two struggle on the ground until the rioter kicks the boy’s father in the face and escapes.
He briefly starts to run but halts for realising he is not worth it. They kick start the generator and return home.
The kid of the father tells his friend he will see him tomorrow and follows his dad home next door. The family sit down talking while the dad recovers from his injury. They start watching TV although all that is shown is now reruns of old shows that they have on discs and tape.
The following morning the kid wakes up to glaring sunlight to which he smiles knowing he doesn’t have school today. He sits up and begins getting dressed although halters when he hears shouting outside. It is muffled though due to just getting up so he slumps down and covers his ears. After a pause he looks over the window ledge and sees neighbours arguing so he goes down to have a look.
One of the neighbours is arguing with his wife because she wants to leave for a town ahead of where they are. He tells her that all the supplies are coming here but she tells him that it’s only until their town is destroyed that then the supplies will go to the next town over. She slams the car door and drives off. He runs over and stops the car, telling her to remember what the town used to mean. She tells him that that was just a fairy-tale and that no help is coming. She drives away. And the kid’s dad goes over and comforts him.
Later on the dad takes his son with him to the shops while talking on the way. They reach the shops and see that it’s been closed down. There are spatters of blood around in the car park, the dad tells his son to wait in the car. He sees a young man sat on the kerb in the car park with blood all around his mouth and hands. A passer-by comes over to speak to his dad, the kid climbs back out of the car and listens. He hears that the shopkeeper got into a fight with the rest of his family when he closed down and started fighting with his younger son, he then abandoned his family and fled.
Alternate: The dad drives towards the shop and sees two men fighting we see this from in the car; a younger man punches his dad in the face. Cut to a shot tracking some blood from the floor up to the two fighting. The dad opens the car and starts walking over before stopping and telling his son to stay in the car. The dad breaks up the fight and helps the younger guy off the floor after the dad hits him very hard. The other dad gets in his car and drives away as his wife walks home crying. The other guy sits on the curb looking down as his face bleeds. The dad gets back in the car and drives his son back home.
The next morning the two kids are playing football when behind them as they play we see an abandoned car with its lights on and hazards (blurred in the background). As they play football it rolls across the street towards the car (the same car that next doors wife left in a few days ago.) The other kid runs across to his home and wakes his mom who puts her dressing gown on and runs outside while others gather. The car has no frost on it and is still warm indicating that someone drove it back. There it drips of blood coming from one of the wheels, the husband walks towards fearing the worst…
